Irdin Pekaric

Postdoctoral Researcher

University of Liechtenstein Vaduz, Liechtenstein
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About Me

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Hilti Chair of Data and Application Security at the University of Liechtenstein. My role involves teaching various courses with a focus on security and programming. Nevertheless, the essence of my work lies in research. My research areas include processing publicly and non-publicly available security data, model-based security, cyber threat intelligence, security education, and bridging the gap between security and safety. To tackle these topics, I utilize diverse approaches such as ML and NLP. Besides my professional life, I have various hobbies, with basketball being a constant throughout my life. Currently, I train and play with a local basketball club in Feldkirch, competing in the regional league of Austria.

Experience

From Jan 2023 To Present

(2 years 11 months)

University of Liechtenstein Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Postdoctoral Researcher

At the University of Liechtenstein, I am a part of the Data and Application Security group, where I teach security and programming courses. Additionally, I am deeply involved in various research initiatives, managing and contributing to projects (ADVANCES: Advancing Human Performance in Cybersecurity) that seek innovative solutions in the realm of cybersecurity.

From Dec 2017 To Dec 2022

(5 years)

University of Innsbruck Innsbruck, Austria

Research Assistant and PhD. Student

I have worked on and managed different projects: MOBSTECO where I developed new model-based approaches to security testing of cloud applications that use AI technologies for test generation and automation; SALSA which involved the development of a novel tool-supported method of “living” safety & security cases enabling efficient compliance management in settings characterized by heterogeneity, cross-organizational structures, certification with respect to multiple standards and short release cycles; MIDSISE where I applied Natural Language Processing and empirical methods to investigate skills in information security education and derive requirements for effective curricula; and SAFESEC where I developed an approach to improve the integrated safety and security engineering of self-adaptive systems. I also taught multiple courses and successfully completed my PhD thesis on "Attack Model Mining for Security Assurance of Self-Adaptive Systems".

From Nov 2015 To Nov 2017

(2 Years)

University of Innsbruck Innsbruck, Austria

Student Assistant

I worked on my master thesis focusing on anomaly detection in security and also did the research that resulted in my first publication on how security testing is conducted in agile development.

Education

University of Innsbruck

PhD in Computer Science

2018-2022

University of Innsbruck

Master in Computer Science

2015-2017

University of Buckingham (SSST)

Bachelor in Computer Science with a Minor in Electric Engineering

2010-2014

Supervision

I offer topics for bachelor's (BSC) and master's (MSC) theses that tackle fields of computer science, information systems, and cybersecurity. I supervise students from the University of Liechtenstein or other universities. In the past, multiple theses that I have supervised resulted in publications at various conferences. If you are looking for a topic or want to suggest a topic (specific or very general) that we can together work on, feel free to contact me! After we have agreed on the topic, you will be required to write an exposè. The details on how to do this will be provided to you.

Projects

KidCy

Innovative Approach to Kid's Cybersecurity Education: Empowering and Inspiring Educators for the Next Generation

2024-2026

SAFESEC

Integrated Safety and Security Engineering of Self-Adaptive Systems

2021-2024

ADVANCES

Advancing Human Performance in
Cybersecurity

2021-2024

MIDSISE

Meeting Industrial Demand for Skills in Information Security Education

2019-2022

SALSA

Living Safety & Security Cases for Cyber-Physical Systems Certification

2016-2019

MOBSTECO

Model-Based Security Testing of Clouds

2013-2016